Options for the implementation of farmers' rights at the national level

One of the main objectives of Farmers' Rights is to allow farmers, their communities, and countries in all regions, fully to participate in the benefits derived, at present and in the future, from the improved use of Plant Genetic Resources, through plant breeding and other scientific methods. The purpose of this paper is to present the main issues that need to be considered in order to implement Farmers' Rights at the national level.<B>Conclusions:</B>the progress made in defining and realising Farmers' Rights has been slow, due to conceptual and practical problems such as the relationship with IPRsFarmers' Rights may be seen as a moral recognition of farmers' past and present contributions to making agriculture sustainable, but they can also play a significant role as concrete instruments to protect and promote traditional farming activities and communities' culture and lifestyles. Therefore issues such as to the scope, content, title-holders, duration and other aspects of such Rights need to be clarifiedthe possible scope and characteristics of measures that may be taken at the national level in order to implement Farmers' Rights need to be further developed, so as to provide more concrete guidelines to governments on how best to comply with their responsibilities in this fieldthe draft of Article 15 of the International Undertaking takes steps towards defining and providing possible elements for the realisation of Farmers' Rights, while leaving considerable room for national governments to determine how to implement them through protective and promotional measures. This may lead to different ways of approaching the matter, but it ensures that each country can adapt the concept to its own reality and needsto ensure that Farmers' Rights are recognised in practice will require, inter alia, capacity building, training, transfer of technology and a fair reward for farmers' contributions[From the author]